dinsdag 22 april 2008

The GNOME desktop is clean, simple, and 'light' (in the sense that it is not a thick fluffy obstacle between me and the functionality I am after).

However, recently I got my hands on a MacBook Air. It not only looked magnificent on the outside, but on the inside as well. Especially the launchpad with its animated icons made it fun.

This article shows how to give Ubuntu a Mac OS/X look. Just follow the recipe and your desktop will be transformed in no time. And combined with the wobbly windows of Compiz, you're desktop will have even more eye-candy than a Mac.

In the end, I am proud to run Linux, so I don't really care for the Apple logos. However, I liked the launchpad, and AWN gives me that. Some interesting things happened:

Next to fun, the launchpad is practical as well. I always wanted to assign a fixed position on the task bar for my favourite apps. With AWN I get that. Better still, with the conventional panel, I had to remember if I had an instance of an application running. Now, AWM remembers that for me. So, to open Firefox, there's only one button and it's always in the same location. Simple.

The jumping icons drove me mad. I made them glow instead.

The AWN notification area is ugly, so I use trayer instead. Not the most beautiful solution, but as a compensation my workrave notifications work (which they never did in the GNOME panel).